PSG and Arsenal will be contesting the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday night in Budapest, and it will be a fascinating match in terms of the different ways they approach the game.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of it, including all the latest betting odds for the Champions League final match.
Match Facts and Betting Offers
- Start: Saturday, May 30, 17:00 UK Time/18:00 CEST
- Venue: Puskas Arena, Budapest
- Live coverage: TNT Sports, HBO Max
- PSG and Arsenal played each other three times in the Champions League last season, with Arsenal beating them 2-0 in the group stages, but PSG got the better of them when it really mattered, winning 1-0 and then 2-1 in the knock-out round.
- PSG are the 2.3 favourites to win the match in 90 minutes and just 1.67 to lift the trophy.
- Arsenal are 3.1 to win in 90 minutes and 2.1 to win the Champions League for the first time in their history.
Betting Tip: PSG vs Arsenal - Champions League Final
Ousmane Dembele had an injury scare in the build-up to the match, but has been passed fit for the big game.
Though 18 goals in 39 matches this season is very solid rather than spectacular, this is a man who saves his goals for the biggest occasions, as shown by the way he scored two goals in that 5-4 against Bayern in the semis before popping up with another goal in that 1-1 draw in the second leg that ultimately booked them their place in the final.
He’ll probably be on penalty duty if they get one, and he looks a reasonable price at 2.6 to score at any time.
The over 2.5 goals market makes ‘overs’ the marginal outsiders at 1.95 with under 2.5 goals available at 1.75. It’s 3.0 that the Parisians with over 2.5 goals in the game, while it’s 7.5 PSG win 1-0, 6.0 on a 1-1 draw and a somewhat unlikely 0-0 trading at 10.0.
Both teams to score is 1.8 and PSG to win on penalties is 12.0, while you can get odds of 13.0 on Arsenal winning through spot-kicks.
- Prediction: Ousmane Dembele to score anytime
- Odds: 2.6 (at the time of writing)
Two Teams with Very Contrasting Styles
It’s fitting that the final of the biggest club competition in world football will be contested by the two best teams in Europe at the moment.
What’s also interesting is the contrast in style between PSG and Arsenal.
PSG are the kings of attractive, attacking football as evidenced by their results in making the final.
In the Round of 16, they beat Chelsea 5-2 and 3-0 before then going on to beat Liverpool 2-0 both home and away. Then in the semis, up against an excellent Bayern Munich side they played one of the best football matches in living memory, winning the first leg 5-4 before doing what they needed to and drawing the second leg 1-1.
As for Arsenal, just as happened in the Premier League, which they won, their campaign in the Champions League was built on an excellent defence and making themselves extremely hard to beat.
Whereas PSG were involved in extremely high-scoring matches, Arsenal were doing the opposite, overcoming Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on aggregate and then did just enough to beat Sporting Lisbon 1-0 before drawing the second leg 0-0 in the quarter-finals.
There was more of the same in the semis, drawing 1-1 against Atletico Madrid in Spain before winning a tight second leg 1-0.
Players to Watch
PSG’s XI reads like ‘who’s who’ of the world’s best players, especially in midfield and attack.
Portuguese pair Joao Neves and Vitinha complement each other in the middle of the pitch, Neves doing the hard work of running and winning the ball back, while Vitinha is one of the best playmakers in the game. A third Portuguese player, Nuno Mendes, is a marauding, powerful left-back who loves to get forward while upfront Ousmane Dembele is the current Ballon D’Or winner and a goal machine who just seems to get better and better.
As for Arsenal, goalkeeper David Raya is arguably the best in the world in his position while the man just in front of him, Gabriel Magalhaes, is a tall, classy centre back who also loves to get forward at set-pieces, where he’s an excellent header of the ball and a real goal threat. Both were crucial in Arsenal keeping so many clean sheets over the course of the season.
On the right wing, they can count on Bukayo Saka, the England man who loves to cut inside onto his left foot and is just as good at creating goals as he is at scoring them.
And if he doesn’t get a goal, then Viktor Gyokeres might. The athletic Swedish striker is a real handful with his hard running and aggressive style, and is hard to stop once he gets on the ball.
